"Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
-- George Orwell, Politics and the English Language

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Going Postal

I've been wondering how long it would take Izvestiya-on-the-Potomac to get around to cornholing Froomkin; I'm actually somewhat surprised they didn't do it a year or so ago. I'm sure it really does have nothing much to do with partisan politics; the Post, more so than any other national paper, has an obvious vested interest in not ruffling the feathers of the people they cover, because they all go to the same parties.

Froomkin is fuckin'-a right on about the role of journalists in calling bullshit, but it's more and more impossible for a cowed corporate media entity to do, by its very nature. There's no grand conspiracy here, really; the individuals have had the urge to perform actual journalism bred out of them by the rigors of corporate culture, as David Gregory has demonstrated time and again. He'll be perfect for Press the Meat for the next thirty years if need be -- bland, pliant, presenting the absolute least resistance possible, does not take offense to being lied to blatantly nor being talked to as if he was in third grade.

Gregory will be more than happy to have John McCain and Newt Gingrich twice a month if that's what they want, and he'll take their shit and ask for more. He'll let Dick Cheney come out of the crypt periodically to lie through clenched jaw and gritted teeth, and it won't even occur to Gregory to present so much as an informed rebuttal or even a contrary opinion. He'll help hack politicians sell unreadable books that are stuffed with the worst, most tendentious, self-serving rhetoric. He's going to help a lot of people make a lot of money, for years to come. The beautiful thing is that no one has to formally ask him to do this, he just instinctively understands his role. Most of them do. It's what passes for objectivity these days.

Froomkin refused to play that game, and that's why he's gone, and he knows it. The only reason I'm not eliminating the Post from the sidebar is because it is occasionally useful as an example of the results of generations of journalistic inbreeding.